The DIRECTORY command is freezing on a certain directory

[yaron1]

Hi,

I have a problem that when I’m trying to display the content of a certain directory with the DIR command, it either displays 2 files there or freezes. When I say freezes I mean the DIR command is stuck in the middle of execution. If I do, from other session, the SHOW PROC/ID=<>/CONT I see that the process does nothing at all with the
DSA0:[SYS1.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]DIRECTORY.EXE displayed at the bottom.
If I try to kill the process with STOP/ID=<> I get no error message, the process however, continues to stay in the operating system but without the DIR command. The SHOW DEV command on the disk shows no problem and I dont see other indications. The machine is VAX with OpenVMS version 7.1. What could possibly be the problem? What else should I check?

Thanks,

[Hein van den Heuvel · Accepted solution]

You could have a broken directory, or it could have be (even less likely) having a strange problem accessing a file header pointed to by the diretory.

Is that DIR command command 'naked' or equated to a DIRECOTRY/something where something is anyting other than /FILE_ID?

In other words, when you issue the DIR on a working directory, does it return just the names and/or file_id (x,y,z) ??
If it show anything else, then re-try with:
$DIREXXX/FILE

The next tool to try is $ DUMP/DIREC

And you may want to run $ ANAL/DISK

If the directory is broken, then you may want to check whether DFU can deal with it, or just blow it away and let ANAL/DISK/REPAIR pick up its files and toss them in SYSLOST

Before the delete, with ANAL/DISK, run a /REPAIR to find 'other' problems and currently lost file into SYSLOST.
Move those (if any) to a fresh dircetory

Now
$SET FILE/NODIR bad-dir.dir
$COPY bad-dir.dir otherdisk:bad-dir.save
$DELETE bad-dir.dir.
$ANAL/DISK/REPAIR...

Good luck!
Hein

[yaron1]

The DIR command is not naked, it is:
DIRECTORY/SIZE=ALL/DATE
What is SYSLOST?

Thanks, Yaron.

[Ian Miller.]

"What is SYSLOST? "

If you do ANALYZE/DISK/REPAIR DSA0:
and files are found which are not listed in a directory then DSA0:[SYSLOST] would be created and the files listed there.

I would start with doing a

ANALYZE/DISK DSA0:

and see what it reports.

[Volker Halle]

Yaron,

if the process hangs executing the DIRECTORY command, does it consume any CPU time or execute any DIRIOs or BUFIOs when viewed with SHOW PROC/CONT ?

You need to look at the process with SDA:

$ ANAL/SYS
SDA> SET PROC/ID=
SDA> SHOW PROC/LOCK

is the first lock shown in WAITING FOR state ? If so, don't continue, you found why the process is stuck. It's waiting for a lock - probably a file system (XQP) lock.

Else do SDA> SHOW PROC/CHAN
Any busy channel ?

Volker.

[Hein van den Heuvel]

>> The DIR command is not naked, it is:
DIRECTORY/SIZE=ALL/DATE

So now engage brain and continue...

Does a simple DIREXXX (the XXX to avoid using a symbol) or DIREXXX/FILE work or not?

If that works, the problem is with the file.
If it doesn't work the problem is with the directory.

A broken directory allthough maybe annoying and tedious has straighforward solutions as suggested.

Trouble with accessing the actual file is a wide open problem. If it was my system then I would allow directory to lock up again and then check with SDA:

$SET PROC/NAME=TEST
$DIR ...

In an other window

$ANAL/SYSTEM
SDA> SET PROC TEST
SDA> SHOW PROC /CHAN ! Look for busy
SDA> SHOW PROC /LOCK ! Look for waiting
SDA> ... ????

[Dean McGorrill]

hi yaron1,
you might try and anal/rms of the directory file itself, and/or open it up
yourself. eg

$ open/read xx temp.dir
$ read xx x
$ sho sym x
X = "....CUBA....£#.......#...."
$ read xx x
$ sho sym x
X = "...-DEC-AXPVMS-VMS732_TZ-V0300--4.PCSI$COMPRESSED...Ã ....."

and look for something bashed. But I'd do
that post mortem for curiosity. it could
be the file thats being looked at as suggested, and the good sda instructions given will tell you whats going on.

Dean

[Hoff]

There are various nasty bugs in OpenVMS VAX V7.1 that could trigger this. Start with "current" ECOs; all mandatory ECOs. Anything marked mandatory, and anything related to I/O or host-based volume shadowing (HBVS) or caching.

There are some OpenVMS bugs here that can and do stomp on data. IIRC, there was a nasty CONVERT bug, for instance, back in this general range.

It's also possible this is a hardware problem.

I'd tend to look to apply the current ECOs, then move the data off the disk with BACKUP (since I'm sure you don't want to loose the data), either disk-to-disk or disk-to-tape-to-disk, and use the recreated disk to see if the problem still lurks. This both to verify the problem, and to acquire a reliable and complete and verified disk BACKUP.

If the problem persists after the shot-gun BACKUP and ECO (or an upgrade to a more current OpenVMS VAX V7.3) and you're not showing errors in the error log and/or SHOW ERROR, I'd probably then force a system crash during the hang, and head off to look at what was locked up. This could be any number of factors, but caching and locks would be my initial paths of investigation within ANALYZE/CRASH.

If this system is critical, do confirm the BACKUPs are current, restorable and are valid, and also look at getting the configuration to a more current version and preferably to a more current architecture.

Or get somebody in to look at the hang.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs LLC

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

And don't forget to tell us what it was.

Wim

[Tony_289]

Hello,
It sure looks like a header, directory (.Dir), and/or disk issue... You mentioned
that sometimes 2 files are shown, then the "freeze". Well, I had a similar issue but my directory command took several minutes
to "display" files slowly but surely( lost headers, marked for delete, etc... were seen from the analyze/disk). The root cause on my 7.2 system was that there were 15,000+ files in the directory desired. Having confirmed a valid backup, I started the purge event. It took a while but once I stopped the purge, performed a Analyze/disk/repair, performance returned.

Can you perform a directory command elsewhere on the particular device without the freeze?

-- Tony